• Computers and Concrete
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.745-765
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• 2014

In this paper, it is aimed to determine the finite element model updating effects on the structural behavior of long span concrete highway bridges. Birecik Highway Bridge located on the 81stkm of Sanliurfa-Gaziantep state highway over Firat River in Turkey is selected as a case study. The bridge consist of fourteen spans, each of span has a nearly 26m. The total bridge length is 380m and width of bridge is 10m. Firstly, the analytical dynamic characteristics such as natural frequencies and mode shapes are attained from finite element analyses using SAP2000 program. After, experimental dynamic characteristics are specified from field investigations using Operational Modal Analysis method. Enhanced Frequency Domain Decomposition method in the frequency domain is used to extract the dynamic characteristics such as natural frequencies, mode shapes and damping ratios. Analytically and experimentally identified dynamic characteristics are compared with each other and finite element model of the bridge is updated to reduce the differences by changing of some uncertain parameters such as section properties, damages, boundary conditions and material properties. At the end of the study, structural performance of the highway bridge is determined under dead load, live load, and dynamic loads before and after model updating to specify the updating effect. Displacements, internal forces and stresses are used as comparison parameters. From the study, it is seen that the ambient vibration measurements are enough to identify the most significant modes of long span highway bridges. Maximum differences between the natural frequencies are reduced averagely from %46.7 to %2.39 by model updating. A good harmony is found between mode shapes after finite element model updating. It is demonstrated that finite element model updating has an important effect on the structural performance of the arch type long span highway bridge. Maximum displacements, shear forces, bending moments and compressive stresses are reduced %28.6, %21.0, %19.22, and %33.3-20.0, respectively.

• International Journal of Fluid Machinery and Systems
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• v.2 no.4
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• pp.392-399
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• 2009

The paper concerns the description of the step by step development process of the new fixed blade runner called "Mixer" suitable for the uprating of the Francis turbines units installed at the older low head hydropower plants. In the paper the details of hydraulic and mechanical design are presented. Since the rotational speed of the new runner is significantly higher then the rotational speed of the original Francis one, the direct coupling of the turbine to the generator can be applied. The maximum efficiency at prescribed operational point was reached by the geometry optimization of two most important components. In the first step the optimization of the draft tube geometry was carried out. The condition for the draft tube geometry optimization was to design the new geometry of the draft tube within the original bad draft tube shape without any extensive civil works. The runner blade geometry optimization was carried out on the runner coupled with the draft tube domain. The blade geometry of the runner was optimized using automatic direct search optimization procedure. The method used for the objective function minimum search is a kind of the Nelder-Mead simplex method. The objective function concerns efficiency, required net head and cavitation features. After successful hydraulic design the modal and stress analysis was carried out on the prototype scale runner. The static pressure distribution from flow simulation was used as a load condition. The modal analysis in air and in water was carried out and the results were compared. The final runner was manufactured in model scale and it is going to be tested in hydraulic laboratory. Since the turbine with the fixed blade runner does not allow double regulation like in case of full Kaplan turbine, it can be profitably used mainly at power plants with smaller changes of operational conditions or in case with more units installed. The advantages are simple manufacturing, installation and therefore lower expenses and short delivery time for turbine uprating.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.131-154
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• 2012

In this paper, it is aimed to determine the seismic behaviour of highway bridges by nondestructive testing using ambient vibration measurements. Eynel Highway Bridge which has arch type structural system with a total length of 216 m and located in the Ayvaclk county of Samsun, Turkey is selected as an application. The bridge connects the villages which are separated with Suat U$\breve{g}$urlu Dam Lake. A three dimensional finite element model is first established for a highway bridge using project drawings and an analytical modal analysis is then performed to generate natural frequencies and mode shapes in the three orthogonal directions. The ambient vibration measurements are carried out on the bridge deck under natural excitation such as traffic, human walking and wind loads using Operational Modal Analysis. Sensitive seismic accelerometers are used to collect signals obtained from the experimental tests. To obtain experimental dynamic characteristics, two output-only system identification techniques are employed namely, Enhanced Frequency Domain Decomposition technique in the frequency domain and Stochastic Subspace Identification technique in time domain. Analytical and experimental dynamic characteristic are compared with each other and finite element model of the bridge is updated by changing of boundary conditions to reduce the differences between the results. It is demonstrated that the ambient vibration measurements are enough to identify the most significant modes of highway bridges. After finite element model updating, maximum differences between the natural frequencies are reduced averagely from 23% to 3%. The updated finite element model reflects the dynamic characteristics of the bridge better, and it can be used to predict the dynamic response under complex external forces. It is also helpful for further damage identification and health condition monitoring. Analytical model of the bridge before and after model updating is analyzed using 1992 Erzincan earthquake record to determine the seismic behaviour. It can be seen from the analysis results that displacements increase by the height of bridge columns and along to middle point of the deck and main arches. Bending moments have an increasing trend along to first and last 50 m and have a decreasing trend long to the middle of the main arches.

• Structural Monitoring and Maintenance
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.33-49
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• 2016

Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) has been attracting numerous research efforts around the world because it targets at monitoring structural conditions and performance to prevent catastrophic failure, and to provide quantitative data for engineers and infrastructure owners to design a reliable and economical asset management strategy. In the past decade, with supports from Australian Research Council (ARC), Cooperative Research Center for Infrastructure and Engineering Asset Management (CIEAM), CSIRO and industry partners, intensive research works have been conducted in the School of Civil, Environmental and Mining Engineering, University of Western Australia and Centre for Infrastructural Monitoring and Protection, Curtin University on various techniques of SHM. The researches include the development of hardware, software and various algorithms, such as various signal processing techniques for operational modal analysis, modal analysis toolbox, non-model based methods for assessing the shear connection in composite bridges and identifying the free spanning and supports conditions of pipelines, vibration based structural damage identification and model updating approaches considering uncertainty and noise effects, structural identification under moving loads, guided wave propagation technique for detecting debonding damage, and relative displacement sensors for SHM in composite and steel truss bridges. This paper aims at summarizing and reviewing the recent research advances on SHM of civil infrastructure in Western Australia.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.53-71
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• 2016

Unconventional computer vision and image processing techniques offer significant advantages for experimental applications to shaking table testing, as they allow the overcoming of most typical problems of traditional sensors, such as encumbrance, limitations in the number of devices, range restrictions and risk of damage of the instruments in case of specimen failure. In this study, a 3D motion optical system was applied to analyze shake table tests carried out, up to failure, on a natural-scale masonry structure retrofitted with steel reinforced grout (SRG). The system makes use of wireless passive spherical retro-reflecting markers positioned on several points of the specimen, whose spatial displacements are recorded by near-infrared digital cameras. Analyses in the time domain allowed the monitoring of the deformations of the wall and of crack development through a displacement data processing (DDP) procedure implemented ad hoc. Fundamental frequencies and modal shapes were calculated in the frequency domain through an integrated methodology of experimental/operational modal analysis (EMA/OMA) techniques with 3D finite element analysis (FEA). Meaningful information on the structural response (e.g., displacements, damage development, and dynamic properties) were obtained, profitably integrating the results from conventional measurements. Furthermore, the comparison between 3D motion system and traditional instruments (i.e., displacement transducers and accelerometers) permitted a mutual validation of both experimental data and measurement methods.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.665-682
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• 2015

Structural identification or St-Id is 'the parametric correlation of structural response characteristics predicted by a mathematical model with analogous characteristics derived from experimental measurements'. This paper describes a St-Id exercise on Humber Bridge that adopted a novel two-stage approach to first calibrate and then validate a mathematical model. This model was then used to predict effects of wind and temperature loads on global static deformation that would be practically impossible to observe. The first stage of the process was an ambient vibration survey in 2008 that used operational modal analysis to estimate a set of modes classified as vertical, torsional or lateral. In the more recent second stage a finite element model (FEM) was developed with an appropriate level of refinement to provide a corresponding set of modal properties. A series of manual adjustments to modal parameters such as cable tension and bearing stiffness resulted in a FEM that produced excellent correspondence for vertical and torsional modes, along with correspondence for the lower frequency lateral modes. In the third stage traffic, wind and temperature data along with deformation measurements from a sparse structural health monitoring system installed in 2011 were compared with equivalent predictions from the partially validated FEM. The match of static response between FEM and SHM data proved good enough for the FEM to be used to predict the un-measurable global deformed shape of the bridge due to vehicle and temperature effects but the FEM had limited capability to reproduce static effects of wind. In addition the FEM was used to show internal forces due to a heavy vehicle to to estimate the worst-case bearing movements under extreme combinations of wind, traffic and temperature loads. The paper shows that in this case, but with limitations, such a two-stage FEM calibration/validation process can be an effective tool for performance prognosis.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.507-526
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• 2009

Based on numerical and experimental methods, a systematic structural evaluation of a steel natatorium in service was carried out in detail in this paper. Planning of inspection tasks was proposed firstly according to some national codes in China in order to obtain the economic and reliable results. The field visual inspections and static computation were conducted in turn under in-service environmental conditions. Further a three-dimensional finite element model was developed according to its factual geometry properties obtained from the field inspection. An analytical modal analysis was performed to provide the analytical modal properties. The field vibration tests on the natatorium were conducted and then two different system identification methods were used to obtain the dynamic characteristics of the natatorium. A good correlation was achieved in results obtained from the two system identification methods and the finite element method (FEM). The numerical and experimental results demonstrated that the main structure of the natatorium in its present status is safe and it still satisfies the demand of the national codes in China. But the roof system such as purlines and skeletons must be removed and rebuilt completely. Moreover the system identification results showed that field vibration test is sufficient to identify the reliable dynamic properties of the natatorium. The constructive suggestion on structural evaluation of the natatorium is that periodic assessment work must be maintained to ensure the natatorium's safety in the future.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.60 no.5
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• pp.749-760
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• 2016

The objective of the study is to investigate the effects of model calibration on seismic behaviour of a historical mosque which is one of the most significant Ottomon structures. Seismic analyses of calibrated and noncalibrated numeric models were carried out by using acceleration records of Kocaeli earthquake in 1999. In numerical analysis, existing crack zones on real structure was investigated in detail. As a result of analyses, maximum stresses and displacements of calibrated and noncalibrated numerical models were compared each other. Consequently, seismic behaviour and damage state of historical masonry Hafsa Sultan mosque was determined as more realistic in the event of a severe earthquake.

• International Journal of Automotive Technology
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• v.8 no.5
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• pp.605-614
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• 2007

This paper presents the research results for the reduction of a gear whine noise based on experimental and analytic methods. The test vehicle has a whine noise problem at the passenger seats in a sport utility vehicle. To identify the transfer path of the interior noise due to the axle system, a vibration path analysis, modal analysis and operational deflection shape analysis are systematically employed. By using these various methods, it has been found that the interior noise generated by the axle system was airborne noise. To reduce and predict the whine generated by the axle system, structural modifications for the axle system are performed by using FEM and BEM techniques. The structural modification of the axle cover is suggested for the reduction of whine noise.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.727-740
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• 2018

Tuned mass dampers (TMDs) are passive damping devices widely employed to mitigate the pedestrian-induced vibrations on footbridges. The TMD design must ensure an adequate performance during the overall life-cycle of the structure. Although the TMD is initially adjusted to match the natural frequency of the vibration mode which needs to be controlled, its design must further take into account the change of the modal parameters of the footbridge due to the modification of the operational and environmental conditions. For this purpose, a motion-based design optimization method is proposed and implemented herein, aimed at ensuring the adequate behavior of footbridges under uncertainty conditions. The uncertainty associated with the variation of such modal parameters is simulated by a probabilistic approach based on the results of previous research reported in literature. The pedestrian action is modelled according to the recommendations of the Synpex guidelines. A comparison among the TMD parameters obtained considering different design criteria, design requirements and uncertainty levels is performed. To illustrate the proposed approach, a benchmark footbridge is considered. Results show both which is the most adequate design criterion to control the pedestrian-induced vibrations on the footbridge and the influence of the design requirements and the uncertainty level in the final TMD design.